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Prosper Portland‘s board voted unanimously Wednesday to bring the historic Hill Block parcel into the Interstate Urban Renewal Area.

The move expands the urban renewal area’s geographic boundaries to include the 1.7-acre block. The board also agreed to raise the URA’s debt cap by $67 million to allow funding for development.

The moves indicate the future of the Hill Block parcel 鈥� stakeholders now prefer to call it Williams and Russell 鈥� is beginning to come into focus after more than two years of study, outreach and conversation that were preceded by decades of inaction and neglect by city and health care leaders.

Raising the URA’s debt cap provides capacity for an injection of tax-increment funding to redevelop the vacant block in North Portland. Approximately $45 million will be available for affordable housing and $20 million for economic development, said Lisa Abuaf, development manager for Prosper Portland. Other dollars will cover administrative costs.

The board’s approval followed tense testimony from some residents who said the agency is repeating past mistakes and not adequately consulting with the African-American community. Prosper Portland officials disagreed, saying that after extensive discussions by a project work group led by African-American community members, it was time to move forward.

鈥淲hat I’m struggling to understand is why there continues to be such tension,鈥� Prosper Portland Commissioner Alisha Moreland-Capuia said. 鈥淚 don’t think the history is lost on any of us. We can’t revise history, but we certainly can work to reconcile it, and that is what we have earnestly set as our goals. I understand the anger is real, but we’re not going to get anywhere if that’s where we stand.鈥�

The parcel between North Russell and Knott streets and North Williams and Vancouver avenues is fraught with the troublesome history of Portland redevelopment. It was home to a large commercial building that was a center for black commerce before its demolition in the early 1970s by the city of Portland and the Portland Development Commission (now Prosper Portland) for a planned Emanuel Hospital expansion.

That expansion never happened, and the increasingly valuable parcel has since sat vacant. In 2017, Prosper Portland officials rediscovered deed language requiring Legacy Health Systems to develop the property. That led to an August 2017 public announcement of a joint effort to plan for the property’s future.

A move in August 2017 to bring the property within the URA was halted after neighborhood leaders protested at a Prosper Portland board meeting that they were not adequately consulted. A work group made up of church, community and city representatives was formed and given broad powers to shape the property’s future. The group has met 19 times and conducted public outreach.

鈥淭hey spent much of the past couple of years focused on two key areas: Understanding the development-related opportunities and constraints, and where community resources could come from,鈥� Abuaf said. 鈥淎nd, also, undertaking community outreach to understand what are the community priorities on the site.鈥�

Two members of the North/Northeast Community Development Initiative board voted against increasing the URA’s maximum indebtedness. The co-chairs, Gwen Thompson and Maurice Rahming, registered their concerns in a letter to Prosper Portland Executive Director Kimberly Branam.

鈥淥ur support depends on the successful transfer of the Legacy-owned property to an African-American community organization or significant progress towards this goal,鈥� Thompson and Rahming wrote.

They also expressed concern that setting aside funding to develop the property while Legacy Health Systems still owns it 鈥渟ends the wrong message.鈥�

鈥淲e strongly recommend,鈥� the letter states, 鈥渨hen working with a large corporation with a history of predatory development in the North-Northeast community, that you exercise caution and provide appropriate consideration to the message this sends to the impacted and displaced community.鈥�

At Wednesday’s meeting, Branam said the agency’s current drive to develop the site is an attempt to ameliorate, rather than extend, the city’s 20th-century land grab.

鈥淭here is nobody on the board or on staff that is an apologist for urban renewal,鈥� she said.

Legacy Health Systems has agreed, in a memorandum of understanding, to donate the block to a development team selected by the work group. The group is preparing an initial request for interest from developers, nonprofits and any other organizations that want to participate in the project. The request for interest is likely to be issued after the work group meets in April, Abuaf said. A request for proposals would follow this fall, she said.

The Portland Housing Bureau is involved with an eye toward providing affordable housing on the parcel, Abuaf said.

鈥淧HB is a key partner on this one,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ffordable homeownership or rental units are a priority coming out of that conversation.鈥�

Prosper Portland has not modeled development scenarios for the site, Abuaf said.

鈥淲e really have started with what are the project working group’s priorities for the site, and undertaking a pretty robust community engagement process,鈥� she said.

Officials are well aware of the possibilities for a sizable parcel in an increasingly dense area of urban Portland.

鈥淚t’s a pretty large parcel, so you could have multiple uses on the site and perhaps multiple projects,鈥� Abuaf said.